SAN BERNARDINO – It’s on. There’s a little less than three months to go before the city’s voters cast ballot in the next mayoral election and the race will let the public decide whether the oft-clashing mayor or city attorney should lead their town.

In February 2006, Mayor Pat Morris defeated City Attorney James F. Penman in a runoff election to earn the city’s top job. In November of the following year, Penman defeated a Morris-supported rival to keep his job as San Bernardino’s lawyer.

In the lingo of the sports world it’s now time for the rubber match.

Morris and Penman are primed for one more mayoral campaign, which could feature as many as two additional challengers.

“It’s probably going to be a very wild and big campaign, and I expect there will be a lot going on,” said First Ward Councilwoman Esther Estrada, who is seeking reelection in her own right.

Contractor Rick Avila, another veteran of San Bernadino’s last mayoral race, has also qualified for the November ballot. There could also be a fourth candidate, Sir Isaac Lindsay, whose nomination papers were still being checked as of Friday.

Before the week ended, it almost seemed as if San Bernardino was going to have a boring mayoral campaign. Morris announced plans to seek a second term way back in May and no other candidate with the same degree of name recognition had declared their intentions to run by the time the nomination period opened July 13.

Penman had said more than once that he had no plans for a rematch, and there was some speculation that Seventh Ward Councilwoman Wendy McCammack, a Penman ally and frequent Morris rival, would make a run.

But Penman said that some time between late Monday night and early Tuesday morning, he changed his mind because of disagreements he has with some recent Morris-supported policies that have been approved by the council.

Those decisions, as outlined by Penman, were the moves to eliminate San Bernardino’s contract with a nonprofit graffiti contractor in favor of taking graffiti removal tasks in-house, an eastside redevelopment plan that would rehabilitate 100 apartments for low-income tenants alongside planned homes and senior housing and the creation of a highly paid public relations position at a time when budget cuts have resulted in vacancies within the Police and Fire departments.

For his part, Morris is poised to campaign on declining crime. FBI statistics released earlier this year show that although San Bernardino had California’s fourth-highest violent crime rate among cities with more than 100,000 people last year, homicides have decreased by about half between 2005 and 2008.

However voters look at the issues, whether they agree with Morris or with Penman, the big difference between the new campaign and 2005-06 race is that both candidates now have a record in city government.

Morris served as a San Bernardino Superior Court Judge before becoming mayor.

“I’m not an unknown anymore,” Morris said. “I’m proud to stand on my record of achievement.”

And Penman, unsurprisingly, said “I see hitting him (Morris) pretty hard” on the issues where they disagree.

Although Morris and Penman have had their share of arguments in and out of the public eye, Penman predicted that an issue-based campaign could actually prevent any shouting matches between the two opponents.

“If anything, I think it will be calmer now,” Penman observed. “We’re both aware that were under close scrutiny.”

Avila, the third candidate who was qualified for the ballot as of Friday, is not as interested in the idea of a Morris-Penman rematch as some other politically-involved San Bernardino residents might be.

“We should all have the same amount ink,” Avila said.

“If everybody has a fair shot, the same amount of ink, you’re looking at the next mayor of San Bernardino,” he added.

Andrew Edwards is part of the Southern California News Group's business team and focuses on housing stories for the Inland Empire. He's based at the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin and has also worked for publications including the Long Beach Press-Telegram and The San Bernardino Sun. He graduated from UCLA in 2003 after studying political science and history.